Editorial: Time to pick a winner in local casino contest

Unless state Sen. John Bonacic knows something we do not, his dream of three casinos in the Catskills, two in Sullivan and one in Ulster, will not happen as quickly as he would like.

Unless state Sen. John Bonacic knows something we do not, his dream of three casinos in the Catskills, two in Sullivan and one in Ulster, will not happen as quickly as he would like.

Gov. Cuomo clarified this week that he will seek three initial casino licenses for the entire state, with only one for any region, when he asks the Legislature for its second vote to amend the Constitution. If local leaders expect to get even one of them, they need to get behind a specific project and start promoting it now because there are lots of moving parts to this process.

The governor and speaker of the Assembly do not want a casino in New York City, at least not right away, because they are afraid that it would attract too much business and would hamper chances for success elsewhere.

And then there is the confrontation between the governor and the Seneca Nation in Western New York. Cuomo says he might put a full casino there or a couple of racinos with slot machines unless the Senacas and he come to terms on revenue sharing.

So, depending on how the necessary legislation emerges from Albany and how the confrontation in the west gets resolved, there might be three or only two licenses available in this round. That means that a region will need to get behind the applicant with the best chance to succeed and make that case.

With several possibilities in Sullivan and Ulster counties, it is not hard to handicap which ones would get attention in Albany.

Developer Louis Cappelli still thinks that he has a chance to snag a license for his long-stalled project at the site of the old Concord Resort. It is hard to believe that anybody in Albany would take him seriously.

Another recent entry is the owner of the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut and a developer who owns 500 acres next to the old Grossinger resort. At this point there is no contract and no plans along with lots of questions about the financial challenges at Foxwoods.

The people who want to take over the old Nevele in Ellenville have made their purchase and development contingent on getting a license. If they don't, there will be no deal and those conditions are likely to be deal-beakers in Albany as well.

So that leaves one viable candidate, the Empire Resorts/EPR project underway and already financed on the other part of the old Concord property. With or without a casino license, its developers say it will have golf, a water park, hotels and a racetrack.

That still leaves a question for the governor and legislators to answer. They need to decide if it makes sense to reward all this investment with a casino license, assuming that it will have a better chance to succeed, or take the developers at their word that they can do well without a license and grant one to another applicant, thus giving the region two attractive destinations.

It's a question better answered locally so that the region can provide a unified front when making the case in Albany.